JPH0739910B2 - Lightweight cooling tower with cruciform columns - Google Patents

Abstract

There is disclosed a structural column which has a generally cruciform cross section. The column includes a generally rectangular core section formed by four orthogonally related walls (47, 48, 49, 50) and four flange portions. Each flange portion is provided by a pair of spaced-apart parallel flanges (51, 52; 53, 54; 55, 56; 57, 58) which are extensions of a pair of parallel walls (47, 49; 48, 50). The column is particularly suited for a tower e.g. a cooling tower which includes at least four vertically extending columns (22). A horizontal beam (23) extends between each pair of adjacent columns (22), and the ends of each beam (23) are inserted between the parallel flanges (51, 52; 53, 55, 56; 57, 58) of the columns. A side panel 24 is preferably supported by each beam (23) and a cover (25) is preferably supported by the side panels (24) and the columns (22).

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooling tower, and more particularly to a lightweight cooling tower supported by columns having a cruciform cross section.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Cooling towers are used to cool liquids by contact with air. The air blown by various air supply means such as a fan flows in the opposite direction through the liquid falling from the upper direction to the lower direction through the cooling tower. Liquid cooling towers are commonly used for cooling water (dissipation of waste heat) used in power generation and treatment turning or industrial and commercial air conditioning equipment.

Many cooling towers have a tower structure that contains packing material. The filling material conducts heat and mass transfer between the liquid and air, thus forming a space in which the liquid flows downward and the air flows upward. The cooling tower structure can be constructed from concrete and metal or other materials.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention A metal portion of a cooling tower may be corroded by a cooling atmosphere or a liquid. Concrete is very strong,
Concrete towers are expensive and heavy. Many cooling towers
Installed on the roof of a building, the weight of a concrete cooling tower causes problems in the design of the building. A cooling tower having a concrete wall supported on a concrete sump by a concrete support is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,046.

Although the plastic part is resistant to corrosion, the plastic material does not have sufficient rigidity to support the weight of the packing material and the tower itself. One known form of filler material used by Ceramic Cooling Towers, Inc., Force Worth, Tex., Comprises a deposited layer of open cell clay tile. This packing material is 27,240 to 31,780 kg (60,000 to 7
It weighs 0,000 pounds). The structural parts of the cooling tower must be designed to support the weight of the packing material and to withstand wind and earthquakes.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,983 describes a cooling tower constructed from glass fiber reinforced polyester resin panels and beams. All structural parts of the cooling tower are glass fiber reinforced polyester resin, with the exception of the cast material and cast iron rungs used to support the stainless steel bolts connecting the glass fiber reinforced polyester resin parts.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,218 describes a cooling tower in which the weight of the tower and packing is supported by precast concrete support legs and the liquid sump is made of concrete. The liquid supply tube extends vertically through the fill material and supports the weight of the fan.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,903 describes a lightweight cooling tower in which all components are made of glass fiber reinforced polyester resin and the packing material is directly supported by a liquid sump.

Although the cooling towers described in the aforementioned U.S. patents have advantages over previous cooling towers, many customers of cooling towers continue to purchase wooden towers. The advantage of wooden towers is that the trees are cheap and easy to manufacture and transport. However, wooden towers are difficult to assemble and rot easily. The average life of a wooden tower is about 7 ~
Only 10 years, maintenance cost is expensive.

An object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight cooling tower having a novel strut structure.

Means for Solving the Problems According to the present invention, the column structure of the cooling tower is formed in a substantially cruciform structure which forms a column having a substantially rectangular core portion having four right-angled walls and four flange portions. Made of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polyester resin. Each flange has a pair of flanges that form an extension of two parallel walls. The four vertically extending struts form the four corners of the cooling tower, and the beam extends between each set of adjacent struts. Both ends of each beam are inserted and fixed between parallel flanges of the column. The side panels are supported by each beam and each side edge of each side panel is inserted between the parallel flanges of the stanchions. The beam and side panels are made of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polyester resin. The cover is supported by side panels and columns. A liquid sump is provided at the bottom of the column and a water supply tube extends vertically upwardly from the liquid sump through the perforated heat / mass transfer medium.

Action The cruciform stanchion is stable in all directions and provides a strong support for beam and side panel and cover weights, earthquakes and wind forces. The cost of the pultruded components is about half that of glass fiber components molded by the conventional method of hand laying glass fibers in a gel-coated mold and spraying the resin. The novel strut structure allows the beam and side panels to be combined with the struts to reduce the dimensions of the beam and side panels, which facilitates the construction of cooling towers and material transportation by inter-assembly. The cooling tower is fire and water resistant, lightweight and economical, and easy to transport and build.

Embodiments Embodiments of the cooling tower according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 16. Although the invention is described with respect to the air conditioning cooling tower 20 shown in FIG. 1, it will be understood that the invention is applicable to other types of cooling towers. The cooling tower 20 is a mechanical draft type cooling tower used for cooling the water of the air conditioner. The cooling tower 20 includes a liquid reservoir 21 in the part, eight vertically extending columns 22, eight horizontal beams 23 extending between adjacent columns 22, and a plurality of side panels 24 supported by the beams 23. And a cover supported by the side panel 24 and the column 22
25 and.

A plurality of supporting cross bars (not shown) supported by the beams 23 extend between a pair of parallel beams 23 and support the packing material 26 of the cooling tower 20. For example, the supporting cross bar is U.S. Pat.
It can also be made of other materials such as cast iron or glass fiber reinforced resin as described in 3,218, 4,422,983 and 4,382,046.

Special filler material 26 is described in U.S. Pat.Nos. 4,382,046 and 4,4.
It is formed by the rectangular open-cell extruded clay tile described in 22,983. These tiles are supported by support crossbars and are stacked in layers to form a perforated heat and mass transfer exchanger for cooling towers. Other types of filler materials can also be used.

The liquid reservoir 21 has a bottom wall 28 and a side wall 29 extending upward. Liquid reservoir 21 is preferably made from glass fiber reinforced polyester resin, as described in US Pat. No. 4,422,983. The liquid reservoir 21 is arranged around the periphery of the liquid reservoir 21 and the support 22.
It is supported by at least four I-beams 30 extending below. If desired, the interior of the bottom wall 28 of the sump 21 may be supported by another I-beam. Further, the liquid reservoir 21 and the column 22 can be supported by a support other than the concrete pad or the I-shaped beam.

A water supply pipe 31 extends vertically upward from the sump 21 through the filling material 26. The inlet pipe or water pipe 32 is connected to the water supply pipe 31 and is also connected to the hot water outlet of the air conditioner by ordinary piping (not shown). A water distribution device is connected to the upper end of the water supply pipe 31 for spraying water on top of the filling material 26. The water distribution device can be of the type described in US Pat. No. 4,543,218 and has four headers 33 (FIG. 16),
Multiple lateral water pipes with multiple spray nozzles
With 34.

The fan device 35 is supported on the top of the water pipe 32. Fan device
35 has a fan 36, a gear reducer 37, and an electric motor 38. The gear reducer 37 is mounted on top of the water pipe 32 and the electric motor 38 is mounted on the beam 39. One end of the beam 39 is attached to the water supply pipe 31 and the other end of the beam is supported by one of the struts 22. The fan 36 draws air from outside the cooling tower 20 upwards through the packing material 26. A conventional anti-drift device (not shown) is supported on top of the cross tube 34.

The cover 25 has four side walls 41, a horizontal top wall 42, and a substantially cylindrical fan enclosure 43. Each side wall 41 has three substantially triangular boxes 44 and a plurality of ribs 46 that reinforce the side wall 41. The beam 39 supporting the fan motor 38 is fitted in one box portion 44. The cover 25 can be molded from glass fiber reinforced polyester resin. The fan enclosure 43 can be molded from two semi-cylindrical bodies that are secured to each other and to the top wall 42.

Each of the columns 22 shown in FIG. 2 has a substantially cruciform cross section formed in a cross beam shape. The pillars 22 are four vertical walls 47 to 50 orthogonal to each other.
Has a square or central box-shaped core and four flange portions, each formed by a pair of parallel and spaced flanges 51-58. Each set of parallel flanges 51 and 52, 53 and 54, 55 and 56 and 57 and 58 are extensions of two parallel walls 50 and 48 and 47 and 49.

The columns 22 are preferably made by pultrusion of glass fiber reinforced polyester resin. Pultrusion is well known in the molding of glass fiber reinforced polyester resin structural members such as I-beams, channels, angles, etc.
The column with the "double girder" cross-section shown in Fig. 2 has not yet been pultruded. Pultrusion is a molding method that uses a glass reinforcing material or a fiber reinforcing material in polyester or other thermoplastic resin. The reinforcing material is drawn through a resin bath and the resin impregnated reinforcing material is drawn through a heated steel mold. The resin-coated reinforcement is solidified into the shape of the cavity of the mold when it is drawn by the pultrusion machine.

Each strut 22 extends vertically upward from the liquid sump 21. Each prop
The bottom of the 22 secures the column 22 against lateral movement,
It is supported and connected by one steel I-beam 3.
FIG. 14 shows one method of fixing the columns. A metal bed 61 is supported by the bottom wall 28 and the I-beam 30 and is connected to the I-beam 30 by bolts or rivets 62. A rectangular pin 63 is welded to the base plate 61 with a size that allows it to be mounted in the core of the column 22 relatively reliably. The column 22 is inserted on the pin 63 and supported by the base plate 61.

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative method of supporting the strut reservoir 21 by a concrete pad or securing the strut 22 when the liquid reservoir 21 itself is concrete. Holes or slots 64 are made in the concrete pad 65. The posts 22 are inserted into the slots 64 and the slots 64 are filled with glands 66 and other filling materials that are subsequently cured.

As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, each beam 23 has a pair of side walls.
It has a generally rectangular cross section formed by 68, 69, a top wall 70 and a bottom wall 71. The side walls 68, 69 extend beyond the bottom wall 71,
Form the flanges 72, 73.

The width of the beam 23 is equal to the parallel flanges 51, 52, 53 on the column 22.
The ends of the beam 23 can be inserted between the two parallel flanges 51 and 52, 53 and 54, 55 and 56, 57 and 58, which are slightly smaller than the spacing between 54, 55 and 56, 57 and 58. As shown in FIG. 5, openings 74 are provided at each end of the beam 23 that align with openings 75 in the flanges of the posts 22. Beam 23 is secured by pins or bolts 76 inserted through aligned openings 74,75.
Bolt 76 is preferably constructed from stainless steel which minimizes corrosion.

In the illustrated embodiment, the ends of each beam 23 are supported and reinforced by a pair of generally triangular retaining plates 77 (FIG. 7). Each baffle 77 has a top opening 78 aligned with the opening 79 in the beam 23.
And a side opening 80 aligned with the opening 81 in the flange of the post 22. The retaining plate 77 is fixed by bolts or pins 82. As shown in FIG. 7, the retaining plate 77 has a shoulder 83 for plunging engagement with the bottom edge of the beam 23.

In the particular embodiment shown, the cooling tower 20 has eight columns 22. The four columns 22 are provided at the corners of the cooling tower 20, and the other four columns 22 are arranged in the middle of the columns 22 at the corners. Beams 23 extend between each corner post 22 and an intermediate post 22. Each strut 22 has four sets of parallel flanges 51-58 and a beam 23 extends at a right angle from each strut 22 as shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, the beams 23 perpendicular to each other are vertically displaced and
Easy insertion and fixing of 76. However, by changing the depth of the flanges 51 to 58 on the column 22, the beams 23 which are perpendicular to each other can be flattened without vertically shifting.

Each side panel 24 is supported by a pedestal channel 85 carried by the beam 23. As shown in FIG. 9, the platform channel 85 has a central wall 86 and a pair of parallel downwardly extending flanges 87 and a pair of parallel upwardly extending flanges 88. Since the spacing between the downwardly extending flanges 87 is somewhat larger than the width of the beam 23, the pedestal channel 85 is
Securely fit on top of.

Each side panel 24 shown in FIG. 8 has a generally parallel inner wall 90 and outer wall 91 and a top wall 92 and a bottom wall 93. Inner wall 90 and outer wall 91 extend upwardly beyond top wall 92 to form a pair of parallel flanges 94,95. The reinforcing rib 96 extends laterally between the inner wall 90 and the outer wall 91, and the outer wall 91 has a reinforcing groove, that is, an emboss 97 at a connection portion with each rib 96. Inner wall 90 and outer wall 91 constrict inwardly at the bottom of side panel 24 to form a reduced width insert 98.

The width of the insertion portion 98 of the side panel 24 is dimensioned so that it can be securely inserted into the groove formed by the flange 88 of the base channel 85. The end of the side panel 24 is a parallel flange of the column 22
Inserted between 51 and 52, 53 and 54, 55 and 56, 57 and 58.

In the illustrated embodiment, a pair of side panels 24 are stacked one above the other between each pair of adjacent posts 22. The insert 98 on the upper side panel 24 is a flange 9 on the top of the lower side panel 24.
Formed to fit securely between 4 and 95. Side panel 2
Since the 4 are stacked one on top of the other to form a cooling tower 20 of the required height, each side panel 24 is relatively small and can be easily and economically transported.

The width of the side panel 24 is equal to the parallel flanges 51, 52 and 53
Less than the spacing between 54, 55 and 56, 57 and 58. Therefore, the panel filling material 101 is attached to the inner wall of the side panel 24 and the flange 5.
It is inserted in the cavity between one of 1 and 52, 53 and 54, 55 and 56, 57 and 58. As shown in FIG. 10, the panel filling member 10
1 has four walls 102-105. The wall 104 has a first portion 104a that extends at a right angle from the wall 103, and a second portion 104b that is inclined at an angle to the wall 102. Since the distance between the outer side surface of the 102nd wall and the outer side surface of the wall 104a is approximately the same as the distance between the side panel 24 and the flanges 51 to 58 of the support column 22, the wall 102 is fixed to the side panel 24. The side panel 24 is wedged in place when the panel filling member 101 is inserted into the cavity by positioning and pressing the wall 105 into the cavity.
The sloping wall 104b facilitates insertion of the panel filling member 101. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the panel filling member 10
The wall 103 of 1 is located outside the flanges 51 to 58 of the column 22 and extends at a right angle to the side panel 24.

The panel fill member 101 extends below the top of the second side panel 24, and the second fill member 106 extends horizontally across the side panel 24. The third panel filling member 107 extends vertically upward from the filling member 106. The horizontal filling member 106 is attached to the inner wall of the side panel 24 by a pop rivet, an adhesive, or the like, and serves as a support for the water pipe 34.

The top channel 109 is plugged onto the top edge of the side panel 24. As shown in FIG. 11, the top channel 109 has two
Horizontal tops 110 and 3 forming two channels 114, 115
It has two vertical flanges 111-113. Side panel 24 fits securely within channel 114.

As shown in FIG. 13, in order to collect the water dripping downward along the side panel 24 and the beam 23, an inclined water drop collecting tank 117 is hung below each beam 23. The water drop collection tank 117 guides water inward into the liquid reservoir 21. The water drop collecting tank 117 has an inclined bottom wall 118 and four upwardly extending flanges 119 to 122.
Have. The water drop collection tank 117 is beamed by the connector 123.
Suspended from 23. Connector 123 is a pair of vertical walls 1
24, 1125, a top wall 126, and an inclined bottom wall 127.
The ribs 128 extend horizontally along the tops of the vertical walls 124, 125 and the ribs 129 extend horizontally along the bottoms of the vertical walls 124, 125. The rib 128 is a groove 130 on the flanges 72, 73 of the beam 23.
Rib 1229 snapped onto (Fig. 6) and water drop collection tank
It is snapped into the groove of flanges 120 and 121 of 117. Two short connectors, not shown, are used to support each water drop collection tank 117. Notches or openings 131 (FIGS. 4 and 5) are provided in the flanges 120-123 to allow water to flow downwardly into the liquid reservoir 21 along the inclined bottom wall 118.

As shown in FIG. 13, the connector 23 is attached to the beam 23.
A beam cap 132 is shown which can be secured to the bottom edge of the beam 23 in a configuration similar to that of mounting 3. The beam cap 132 has a horizontal wall 133 and a pair of flanges 134 provided with ribs 135. The ribs 135 can snap into the grooves 130 of the beam 23. The horizontal wall 133 can also be an additional support surface for the filling material 26.

All of the components that make up the sidewalls of the cooling tower 20 are preferably made from pultruded glass fiber reinforced polyester resin. These components are columns 22, beams 23, side panels 2
4, retaining plate 77, bottom channel 85, panel filling member 103, 10
6, 107, a top channel 110, and a water drop collecting tank 117.
Pultrusion components are significantly less expensive than glass fiber reinforced polyester resins made by the traditional method of fixing glass fibers in a gel coated mold and spraying the resin. The shape of the pultruded member can be adapted to a member that eliminates many of the connections previously required for glass fiber cooling towers and can significantly reduce the time required to build a cooling tower. In addition, the side panels 24 can be stacked on top of each other to form a wall of a desired height, and the columns of a desired length can be formed by juxtaposing additional columns to form a wall of a desired length. It can be relatively small to facilitate shipping and reduce shipping costs.

The cooling towers described herein combine the advantages of precast concrete towers, such as durability, water resistance and fire resistance, with the benefits of wooden cooling, such as versatility, light weight and economy. The cooling tower according to the invention offers the advantages of both concrete and wooden towers without drawbacks.

The novel shape of the struts 22 allows the size of the cooling tower to be easily increased to increase the cooling capacity of the cooling tower. The width and length of the cooling tower can easily be increased by adding additional columns in either direction. When adding another outer strut, the inner strut is used to support the beam 23 inside the cooling tower to support the packing material.

Beams 23 extend between struts 22 intermediate the top and bottom ends of the struts. The opening between the columns 22 below the beam 23 serves as an air inlet through which the cooling air is sucked by the fan device 35. The wall thickness of the beam 23 depends on the filling material supported by the beam.
It can be changed according to the weight of 26. Fan device
Most of the weight of 36 is directly supported by the vertical water supply pipe 31. Therefore, the columns 22, beams 23 and side panels 24 are required to support only their own weight in addition to the weight of the cover 25 and wind and seismic loads.

FIG. 16 shows an example of a method for supporting the vertically arranged water supply pipe 31. The water supply pipe 31 extends vertically through the bottom wall of the liquid sump 21 and into the hole 136 of the concrete support pad 137. The holes 136 are filled with grout 138 or other filling material. If desired, liquid sump 21 can be constructed from concrete other than that having a separate concrete support pad. Further, the liquid supply tube 32 may be attached to the metal I-beam below the liquid reservoir 21.

While the above description describes specific embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the above embodiments and may be performed by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will be appreciated that it can be changed considerably.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above, the present invention has an advantage that a refractory, water resistant, lightweight and economical cooling tower can be easily constructed, and materials required for constructing the cooling tower can be easily transported. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a cooling tower according to the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a plan view of columns used in the cooling tower of FIG.
The figure is a perspective view showing a horizontal beam connected to one of the corner columns, FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of the inside of the cooling tower showing the relationship between the column, the horizontal beam and the side panel, and FIG. 4 is a partial exploded view of FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is one end view of the beam, FIG. 7 is one end view of the shroud, FIG. 8 is one end view of the side panel, and FIG. 9 is the side panel. End view of the base channel of the No. 10
FIG. 11 is an end view of a panel filling member, FIG. 11 is an end view of a top channel of a side panel, FIG. 12 is an end view of a beam cap, and FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view showing a water drop collecting device connected to a beam. FIG. 14 is a schematic perspective view showing a locating pin and a column inserted into the support beam, FIG. 15 is a partially sectional schematic diagram showing a column embedded in a concrete pad, and FIG. 16 is a part of a vertical liquid supply pipe. It is the schematic which crossed. 20 …… cooling tower, 21 …… liquid reservoir, 22 …… pillars, 23, 30,
39 …… Beam, 24 …… Side panel, 25 …… Cover, 26 ……
Filling material, 28 …… bottom wall, 29 …… side wall, 31 …… water supply pipe,
32 …… water pipe, 35 …… fan device, 36 …… fan, 37 ……
Gear reducer, 38 …… electric motor, 41 …… side wall, 42 …… top wall,
43 …… Fan enclosure, 45 …… Rib, 47-50 …… Right-angled wall,
51-58 …… Flange, 63 …… Pin, 64 …… Groove, 65 ……
Concrete pad, 66 …… grout, 68, 69 …… side wall, 70 …… top wall, 71 …… bottom wall, 72, 73 …… flange, 7
4, 75, 78, 79, 81 …… Opening, 82 …… Bolt, 85 …… Base channel, 87, 88 …… Flange, 90 …… Inner wall, 91…
… Outer wall, 92 …… Top wall, 93 …… Bottom wall, 94,95 …… Flange, 101,103,106 …… Filling member, 117 …… Water droplet collecting device, 124,125 …… Wall, 126 …… Top Wall, 127 ... bottom wall, 129
…… Rib, 130 …… Groove, 132 …… Beam cap, 133…
… Wall, 134 …… Flange,

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A cooling tower having at least four vertically extending struts and a horizontally extending beam between each set of adjacent struts, each strut having a core portion and four right-angled flange portions. Each of the flange portions is formed by a pair of flanges spaced from each other and parallel to each other, each beam is inserted between the parallel flanges of one strut, A cooling tower comprising means for connecting the ends of the cooling tower. 2. The core portion of each strut is formed by two sets of parallel walls, each set wall extending at a right angle to the other set wall, and each set flange aligned with one of the wall sets. Item 2. A cooling tower according to item 1. 3. A cooling tower comprising at least four vertically extending columns forming four corners of a cooling tower and at least four horizontally extending beams, wherein the beam extends between a pair of adjacent columns. At least four side panels supported by one, a support supported by the stanchions, and a connecting means for connecting the ends of each beam to the combined stanchions, each strut being perpendicular to the core part Having a generally cruciform cross section formed by four flange portions, each flange portion being formed by a pair of flanges spaced and parallel to one another, each beam extending between a pair of adjacent struts and A cooling tower, characterized in that both ends are inserted between parallel flanges of columns, and the connecting means connects the ends of each beam to the flanges of the combined columns. 4. The core portion of each strut is formed by two sets of parallel walls, each set wall extending at a right angle to the other set wall, and each set flange aligned with one of the wall sets. Item 3. A cooling tower according to item 3.